Artists of Hawai‘i 2013 | Roberta Griffith: Stuck in the sand

Got the work shipped to the Honolulu Museum of Art for three installations in Artists of Hawai‘i 2013last week. Going to O‘ahu to install in two weeks. The centerpiece of my new sandbox installation Stuck in the Sand is Cheryl Aardvark, a trompe l’oeil ceramic toy. This toy is part of the realistic ceramic debris in the sandbox.

It is curious to me how objects and houses go through tornadoes hurricanes, and other natural or man-made disasters, yet some things remain as if they were untouched, while others are destroyed. Stuck in the Sand is my way of remarking on this phenomenon.

Roberta Griffith working on Cheryl Aardvark

Editor’s note: You can see Cheryl Aardvark starting Sept. 19, when Artists of Hawai‘i 2013 opens.
Want to attend the members’ reception? (It’s one of the best art parties in town—and happens only every two years.) You need to be a member at the Supporter level or above. Join now!

2 Comments

A lot of artists in hawaii seem to lack a sense of what people in these islands are starved for aesthetically. We live in Paradise, where even when you stuck in traffic looking at a river of tail lights you can get one gobsmack from a rainbows over beautiful mountains.

I’m not saying that art in Hawaii has to be all about Kelly Sueda’s slippers on the lanai or Weiland’s whales. I even like some of the “street art” that decorates the homeless encampments in Kakaako.

But once again, I’m left a little confused by what this supposed to say, and how it represents the best the state has to offer.

How is my oeuille being tromped by this thing that looks like the fat candy peanuts i give to kids at Halloween?

“Cheryl Aardvark?” Can we turn the “whimsy” up to seventeen and just leave it running?

To be fair, there’s little in this blog post that really tells me anything meaningful about Roberta Griffith’s installation. She was probably “invited” (forced) to do this by the Museum’s social media specialist.

When she mentions valuable things that survive catastrophes, I think about pyramids in the deserts and jungles of heathen 3rd world countries. I think about the inherent nobility of centuries old temples in Greece, and the Forum crumbling in Rome. I think about that little church back home that got flooded out by Sandy.

To take a kid’s lost toy and turn it into “art” is kinda creepy. Would Griffith take something found in the rubble from Ground Zero and make it into “art?”

Forgive my skepticism, but this reminds me of that therapy used to help children work through conflicts. Are we supposed to be counselors or victims next week?